Over 50% of US adults use text messaging, blogging and other types of social media to regularly communicate with others, according to MediaPost, which reported results from the latest wave of Universal McCann’s large-scale “Media in Mind” tracking study

Some 70 percent of consumers that responded to a mobile marketing offer say they responded to a marketing text message — compared with 41 percent who’ve responded to a survey and 30 percent to email offers — according to the Direct Marketing Association (DMA), writes MarketingCharts.

A growing number of companies are using cellphone text messages to lend
more interactivity to their ads. Silicon Valley start-up 4INFO plans to
announce a new trial partnership with Yahoo to provide
content-publishing technology.

But at least one slice of the business appears to be catching on, according to marketers: ads sent via text message. A growing number of companies are using cellphone text messages to lend more interactivity to their ads. For instance, Coors Brewing’s Coors Light beer recently added a text-message component to its traditional sponsorship of the NFL Draft. Football fans opted to receive draft alerts, and each message contained a squib about Coors Light.

Brace yourself, big marketers are getting hip to text-message lingo. In ads that begin in two weeks for a new line of Degree deodorant for teen girls, Unilever is highlighting “OMG! Moments.” Print ads running in magazines such as Seventeen and CosmoGIRL show “High School Musical” star Ashley Tisdale at a glitzy affair discovering that she has toilet paper stuck to one of her shoes.

How cool? In the coming months, you’ll be able to dictate text messages and surf the Web just by speaking commands — no tapping or clicking required. If you’re trying to figure out where to go to lunch, you’ll be able to call up a map marked with local eateries your friends and family recommend. And you’ll be able to film movie clips on your cellphone and send them live to somebody else’s gadget.

Kids today, especially teenagers, are defining themselves by the way the communicate. Parents feel out of the loop because they may not completely understand the ways in which their kids are communicating through technology. C.

Children increasingly rely on personal technological devices like cellphones to define themselves and create social circles apart from their families, changing the way they communicate with their parents.

Innovation, of course, has always spurred broad societal changes. As telephones became ubiquitous in the last century, users — adults and teenagers alike — found a form of privacy and easy communication unknown to Alexander Graham Bell or his daughters.

With Akoo’s network, named m-Venue, cellphone users can send a
text-message request for a music video, sports clip or fashion show to
be delivered to their phone or played on a nearby Akoo television
screen, which would act much like a high-tech jukebox.

In
return, companies can deliver digital coupons and promotions to the
cellphones. For instance, a customer at a John Barleycorn restaurant in
Chicago, part of the m-Venue network, might select a text message code
displayed on a big screen — say, one that would deliver Gwen Stefani’s new music video.

The customer would then receive a text message to the effect of,
“Thanks! Gwen Stefani will play shortly. Show this text to your server
and get any appetizer for $1.”

Ads on cellphones and digital
signs that can be activated by consumers are part of the rapidly
expanding business of mobile marketing.

With Akoo’s network, named m-Venue, cellphone users can send a text-message request for a music video, sports clip or fashion show to be delivered to their phone or played on a nearby Akoo television screen, which would act much like a high-tech jukebox.

Leading the way are the pizza giants. Papa John’s (PZZA) is airing national TV spots to promote the text ordering that it launched in November. Domino’s (DPZ) has offered mobile ordering — which requires cellphone Web access — since July. Pizza Hut is about to start promoting both text and mobile ordering.

If a student sends a text message asking for a coupon from a company that
doesn’t subscribe to the service, WHAMtext replies with a discount offer from an
advertiser in that same product category. So, for example, if Subway doesn’t
advertise, the technology might return a Quiznos or a Schlotzsky’s coupon. This
way, participating advertisers have a chance to target someone who is hungry for
their type of products.

This is a great way to drive trial, and get your brand into the hands of young, tech savvy consumers in a meaningful way.

The service, now available from Houston-based WHAMtext, allows students to text-message coupon requests to 469426, or shortcode GoWHAM. The business name and college campus code, or zip code, are required in the body of the text message to receive a reply with a discount coupon, complete with tracking number, expiration date, address to nearest participating business, and the amount of a specific item discounted.

To cash in, the student shows the coupon on the cell phone screen
to the cashier at checkout. Advocates say electronic coupons are
ecologically friendly and easier to use than remembering to clip newspaper ads.

Media companies are beginning to explore Twitter – a social networking service that allows users to send messages in bursts – for promotional purposes and to extend shows online. There is a definite move in the traditional media sector to expand into more technological realms where younger generations play. It is necessary if they want to stay relevant. C.

NBC, CBS, ABC Family and MTV are among several networks experimenting with the marketing possibilities of Twitter, a nascent social-networking service that sends messages in super-short bursts. Popular with young, tech-savvy consumers, Twitter lets registered users send brief updates to groups of fellow Twitter users simultaneously — via either text messages, instant messages, email or Twitter’s home page. The service is free to use.